I am not aware of any standard production mold such as you describe. Lyman makes or made a 155 grain HB mold, 450229. Custom mold makers will make anything you can afford.

Elmer designed a hollow based bullet for the 44 but not for the 45.

swathdiver

January 9, 2013, 03:41 PM

Elmer designed a hollow based bullet for the 44 but not for the 45.

Was that the Rapine 454252?

Big Al Mass

January 9, 2013, 05:03 PM

Could you achieve the desired result by drilling out the base of an ordinary bullet? Just a thought.

Jaymo

January 9, 2013, 06:00 PM

Looks like the Rapine .454253 is the closest to what you seek. It's a .454 diameter, 253 grain hollow based bullet.

StrawHat

January 10, 2013, 06:36 AM

Was that the Rapine 454252?
Elmer designed the 429421 for the 44 Special/Magnum. He also designed the 429422, a hollow based version, for the same cartidges. He did not design a HB mold for the 45.

I forgot about the Rapine molds. 454253 and 454155 were both HB designs for the 45 caliber revolvers.

Curator

January 10, 2013, 07:12 AM

Lee has a .454 hollow-base/flat nose mould. I think that one drops bullets that weigh around 280 grains.

swathdiver

January 10, 2013, 08:14 AM

Elmer designed the 429421 for the 44 Special/Magnum. He also designed the 429422, a hollow based version, for the same cartidges. He did not design a HB mold for the 45.

I forgot about the Rapine molds. 454253 and 454155 were both HB designs for the 45 caliber revolvers.

Hmm, I saw that number attributed to him on a Rapine catalog page. Ok, it says "Keith type".

http://www.castpics.net/subsite/CurMolds/Rapine.pdf

Patocazador

January 10, 2013, 04:21 PM

Thanks for the replies but I read somewhere that Rapine was out of business.

If I find a suitable mold, I'll have to measure the length of the bullet to see if it will be short enough to fit in the Ruger cylinder and allow enough room for a decent powder charge.

J-Bar

January 13, 2013, 12:30 PM

I have an idea. I have not tried it myself. I don't know if anyone has ever tried it, but WTH.

Get a steel ball bearing and grind off enough so you have a flat-bottomed bump with a curved upper surface. The diameter of the flat bottom should allow it to fit in the bottom of the mold when it closes.

Then cast your bullet with that bump inside the mold. You could vary the depth of the hollow by varying the original diameter of the ball bearing you started with.

The lead shouldn't stick to the steel and it should pop out when the bullet is dumped.

It would be a damnably slow casting process to fish the bump out and put it into the mold each time, but if you have enough cold winter days...

ottsm

January 13, 2013, 09:46 PM

This is my Rapine mould. Sad to say that Rapine is out of business.

http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc361/ottsm/IMG_6059.jpg

raa-7

January 14, 2013, 08:01 PM

Could you achieve the desired result by drilling out the base of an ordinary bullet? Just a thought.
It works,I've drilled a few out to test them on targets,but it's more work then it's worth IMHO,but if you were going to use them for hunting it would be worth it.

Patocazador

January 15, 2013, 11:12 AM

It works,I've drilled a few out to test them on targets,but it's more work then it's worth IMHO,but if you were going to use them for hunting it would be worth it.
That may have to be the way I go. I certainly appreciate all the responses.